- Can you get cancer from sex? Is cancer a sexually-transmitted
disease (STD)?
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- A generation ago physicians insisted that cancer was
not contagious or infectious, and couldn't be transmitted by coughing,
sneezing, or any kind of physical contact.
-
- Now all this has changed. Public health authorities are
pushing for a mandatory vaccine for girls as young as 11 years of age to
prevent infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV) - the sexually-transmitted
virus believed to cause cancer of the cervix (the cervix is the lower portion
of the uterus where it joins with the top end of the vagina).
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- Why haven't physicians informed the public about the
sex connection to cancer? What do doctors really know about HPV and its
cancer risk to women, particularly 11 year-old girls? Is the proposed mandatory
HPV vaccine just another way to make drug companies richer? And is the
vaccine proven to prevent cervical cancer in women?
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- The human papilloma virus as a sexually-transmitted virus
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- There are about 100 types or "strains" of HPV,
more commonly known as "the wart virus." A few dozen types can
be passed sexually to infect the genital and anal area of both sexes. Only
a small number of HPV strains are involved in cervical cancer. "Type
16" of HPV causes half the cancers.
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- HPV is the most common STD in the U.S. At least 50% of
sexually-active people get HPV some time in their lives; and the virus
is highly prevalent in sexually-active men. An estimated 6.2 million Americans
are newly infected every year. The virus can be spread by touch by heterosexuals,
bisexuals, gays and lesbians, - and through vaginal, anal and oral sex.
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- The vaccine and its cost
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- Called Gardisil and manufactured by Merck and Co., the
anti-HPV vaccine is a series of three shots given over a period of six
months at a cost of $380. It's the most expensive vaccine ever made. The
vaccine is promoted as a prevention of cervical cancer, precancerous genital
lesions, and genital warts due to HPV.
-
- In reality, the vaccine only protects against the 4 types
of HPV which cause 70% of the cervical cancers. Thus, nearly one out of
three cancers will not be prevented. Gardisil does not treat existing HPV
infections, and it doesn't work for women exposed to the virus before getting
the vaccine. The vaccine is currently approved for females from the age
of 11 up to 26 years of age, and it is not recommended for pregnant women.
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- In order for the immunity to continue, booster shots
are recommended every 5 years. Most significantly, the vaccine does not
take the place of routine cervical cancer screening tests, such as the
Pap test, which costs about $50.
-
- Cervical cancer is a rare and preventable cancer in U.S.
women
-
- Cervical cancer in the U.S. is a rare and preventable
disease! Despite the vaccine hoopla, the rates for cervical cancer in the
U.S. have been steadily declining since 1975, not as a result of decreasing
sexual partners, but as a result of the efficacy of continuing cancer screening
by use of the Pap smear test.
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- Each year roughly 12,000 American women are diagnosed
with cervical cancer; and 4,000 die from it. It is important to recognize
that infection with HPV is very common, but cervical cancer is rare. Ten
times as many women die of breast cancer; and twice as many die of leukemia.
It is not cancer, but AIDS, that is the leading killer of African-American
women. More than one million Americans are infected with HIV, the virus
that causes AIDS.
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- What women are at high risk for dying from cervical cancer?
Southern black women, Hispanic women living along the Texas-Mexican border,
white women in Appalachia and the rural Northeast, and Vietnamese immigrants
all are at high risk. These groups are also more likely to be poor and
unable to afford quality medical care. Cervical cancer is rare in nuns,
unless they were sexually active prior to commitment to religious life.
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- Is sex the only way HPV can be transmitted?
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- Vaccine makers would like the public to believe that
HPV is spread only through sex. However, studies suggest HPV is common
in little girls. HPV can infect a newborn passing through the birth canal
of an infected mother, or by close contact of a child with another, either
by sexual or non-sexual contact.
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- The possibility that HPV infection is acquired early
in life through the mouth or even the respiratory tract cannot be ruled
out. There is also a likelihood that HPV can be spread through blood. HPV
has been commonly found in the urine of young girls, and in semen.
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- Cancer, condoms, circumcision and HPV in men
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- How is HPV acquired and transmitted among men? How frequently
do they acquire it from women? How frequently do women contract it from
men? We do not know because such studies are non-existent. Most sexually-active
men carry HPV. The virus is the cause of penile warts and HPV infection
can lead to an increased risk for penile and anal cancer. Although millions
of men carry HPV on their skin, it is rare for men to get penile and anal
cancer. Only one man in 100,000 will die of penile cancer; and it is predicted
anal cancer will kill 690 American men in 2007. (More than a half-million
Americans have already died of AIDS.) However, penile cancer is much more
common in parts of Africa and South America, where it accounts for up to
10% of cancers in men.
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- What happens when a man with penile cancer has sex with
his wife? Does he transfer HPV to her, increasing her risk for cervical
cancer?
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- Several hundred men with penile cancer were studied in
a 1990 Finnish experiment, along with their spouses. Only two of the wives
were found to have cervical cancer. Amazingly, the incidence was the same
for a similar-size group of women whose husbands did not have penile cancer.
The study concluded: "The incidence of condylomas (genital warts)
has increased during the recent decades, while that of carcinomas of the
penis and uterine cervix has decreased. The results of this study did not
support the hypothesis that wives of men with penile cancer incur an increased
risk of carcinoma of the cervix uteri. Although there is much evidence
from a large number of studies that human papilloma virus (HPV) has a role
in the etiology of cervical cancer, our study suggests that HPV associated
with genital malignancies has a low infectivity or that these cancers have
multifactorial etiology."
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- Despite this study, sexual partners of patients with
anogenital cancer patients should be carefully examined for cancer.
-
- How can a woman tell if her sex partner has HPV?
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- There is no way for a woman to be sure that a man is
or isn't infected with HPV. Many penile warts cannot be detected without
a special examination, and many men carry HPV on "normal" skin.
-
- The most important thing any woman can do to decrease
her risk of acquiring cervix cancer is to undergo regular Pap testing.
Physicians also advise women to limit their numbers of sexual partners,
and to delay the onset of sexual activity.
- Unfortunately, condoms do not prevent HPV infection.
Condoms protect against certain transmitted diseases like HIV infection,
but they do not lower the risk for cervical cancer. However, studies indicate
circumcision helps protect men from HPV and their wives from cervical cancer.
Circumcision is now also recommended in third-world countries as a way
to lower the risk of HIV as well.
- Acquiring an STD does not necessarily indicate a person
is "promiscuous." The more lottery tickets you buy the more likely
you are to win the lottery. Similarly, the more sexual partners the more
likely one is to contract an STD.
-
- The word "promiscuous" is often tossed around
in a demeaning way, and the word is rarely defined. My dermatology professor
used to say a promiscuous person is someone who has had more sexual partners
than you have. A promiscuous person is often regarded as having "casual
sex." But a virus (or any other sexually transmitted infectious agent)
doesn't care if the sex is casual or not casual.
-
- It is possible to win the lottery by buying only one
ticket; and possible to acquire HPV from one sexual partner in the case
of a monogamous and faithful woman. And, as stated, there is no way to
guarantee that a sexual partner is free of HPV.
-
- Is human papilloma virus the sole cause of cervical cancer?
-
- There is evidence that HPV alone does not cause cervical
cancer and that other "co-factors" are necessary. This research
is downplayed by HPV vaccine makers. Because HPV infection rarely leads
to cancer some investigators suspect that cervical cancer must have a multifactorial
etiology. Back in the 1980s many physicians thought the "herpes simplex
virus-2" was the cause of cervical cancer. Nowadays, some think it
is still a significant factor in some cases. In the US, 25% of the general
population is infected with HSV-2.
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- Cervical cancer and bacteria
-
- In a rather recent development, it has been found that
bacteria and yeast organisms present in the vagina can make a difference
in testing for HPV infection. Apparently the detection of HPV DNA is influenced
by the composition of vaginal non-viral microbes prevalent at the time
of testing.
-
- The question of whether infectious "cancer bacteria"
are implicated in cancer is something that I have studied throughout my
professional career. There is a century of research linking bacteria to
cancer (and more recently to AIDS), but unfortunately this has been entirely
ignored by the cancer establishment and by virologists. I wrote about this
cancer microbe research in my three books, AIDS; THE MYSTERY AND THE SOLUTION
(1984), THE CANCER MICROBE (1990) and in FOUR WOMEN AGAINST CANCER (2005).
These cancer-associated bacteria (which also have a virus-like growth stage)
have been demonstrated in breast cancer, prostate cancer, various forms
of lymphoma, Kaposi's sarcoma (the "gay cancer" of AIDS) and
in AIDS-damaged tissue at autopsy,, and in other chronic diseases. (Google:
cancer bacteria or cancer microbe for details.)
-
- Years ago, my friend and mentor Virginia Livingston,
M.D. wrote in her book, CANCER: A NEW BREAKTHOUGH (1972), that care should
be taken in the sexual arena. She advised people "to not have physical
relations except with your mate" because of her research showing that
cancer was a disease caused by infectious bacteria. At the time her words
were considered absolute nonsense and totally out of touch with the sexual
mores of the 70s, and Livingston was widely accused of being a quack by
her colleagues. When she attempted to boost the immune system of cancer
patients with vaccines made from the patient's own bacteria, she was harassed
by the medical authorities. Now Livingston's old "heresy" promoting
cancer as an infection is the current vogue of virologists and vaccine
makers.
-
- A very recent Italian study stresses the importance of
vaginal bacteria as a possible co-factor in cancer. Ureaplasma urealyticum
is a "mycoplasma-like" (virus-like) bacterium generally ignored
by cancer researchers. The Italian scientists wrote: "The presence
of a high Ureaplasma urealyticum level seems to be a cofactor of HPV infection,
a necessary cause of precancerous lesions of the uterine cervix."
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- The finding of HPV in a wide variety of human cancers
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- Is cancer contagious and infectious? In addition to anogenital
cancers, HPV has been found in head and neck cancers, the sixth most common
form of cancer in the U.S. A PubMed internet search of HPV in other cancers
indicates that HPV has been found in a variety of human cancers, such as
cancer of the mouth, tongue, tonsil, esophagus, lung, breast, liver, colon,
lymphoma, and in skin cancers and in healthy skin. As these cancers collectively
encompass most human cancers, the evidence certainly suggests that cancer
could be a communicable and/or a sexually transmitted disease.
-
- Such a view is at odds with what the medical profession
has been telling people until recently. However, the infectious nature
of cancer is exactly what cancer microbe researchers have been proclaiming
since the late nineteenth century, as reported in my book THE CANCER MICROBE.
What the current finding of ubiquitous viruses also suggests is that there
is some unrecognized relationship between bacteria in cancer and the widespread
presence of various viruses in cancer.
-
- The hidden dangers of vaccines
-
- No vaccine is 100% safe! Vaccines can easily become contaminated
with viruses, bacteria and mycoplasma. During the flu season in 2004 almost
half of that year's flu vaccine supply was withdrawn from the market due
to bacterial contamination.
- During the mandatory polio vaccine programs in the 1950s,
half the U.S. population was infected with a cancer-causing monkey virus
(simian virus 40) that accidentally contaminated the polio vaccine.
-
- During the "swine flu" scare of February 1976,
millions of Americans were urged to take a vaccine against it. The swine
flu pandemic never happened, but the extensive vaccine program was halted
in January 1977 after 500 cases of Guillain-Barre sydrome, a serious polio-like
syndrome, occurred in vaccine recipients. There were 25 deaths from the
syndrome and the federal government had to eventually pay out $90 million
dollars in damages from the lawsuits.
-
- A few physicians believe that the HIV/AIDS epidemic originated
exclusively in gay men due to the contamination of the experimental hepatitis
B vaccine (also made by Merck and Co.), which was inoculated into thousands
of gay male volunteers prior to the outbreak of AIDS and the "introduction"
of HIV into that population in 1979.
-
- In 2004 Merck withdrew the FDA-approved arthritis drug
Vioxx after a three-year study linked the painkiller to increased risk
of heart attack, stroke and sudden cardiac death in patients who took the
drug. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against the company and are
pending.
-
- Vaccines have also been reported to be surreptitiously
laced with anti-fertility drugs and administered to child-bearing women
in third world countries. Millions of Mexican, Nicaraguan, and Filipino
women were duped into taking tetanus vaccines, some of which contained
a female hormone (hCG) capable of causing miscarriage and sterilization.
In 1995, a Catholic human rights organization called Human Life International
accused the World Health Organization of promoting a Canadian-made tetanus
vaccine containing the pregnancy hormone hCG. (For more details, see my
Internet article, "Vexing over vaccines.")
-
- Side effects of Gardasil already include several post-vaccination
cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, as reported and posted on the National
Vaccine Information Center website.
-
- Nowadays, it is becoming more and more impossible to
sue for damages in the event of a serious vaccine-induced reaction. Vaccine
manufacturers are now protected by a tort liability shield granting them
immunity from potential liability in the event of a declared public health
emergency. The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, signed
by George W. Bush in December 2005, removed the right to a jury trial for
persons injured by a covered vaccine.
-
- Is the HPV vaccine proven to be effective?
-
- On Feb 2, 2007, governor Rick Perry of Texas issued an
executive order requiring all 11 and 12 year-old girls to receive the new
HPV vaccine. Perry claims, "Never before have we had an opportunity
to prevent cancer with a simple vaccine." This actually is not true.
Merck's hepatitis B vaccine, used since the 1980s, was heralded as a vaccine
to prevent liver cancer. However, each year more deaths from liver cancer
are reported.
-
- In an adolescent girl, the development of cervical cancer
can take a half-century or longer to develop. The only way to prove the
vaccine is effective is to determine the actual cancer rate over a very
long period of time. Because the HPV vaccine maker recommends that Pap
tests be done regularly during these decades, how will it be possible to
determine that the vaccine "alone" is effective?
-
- Furthermore, there is no current plan to vaccinate men
for HPV. It seems premature to mandate a vaccine for all females and ignore
the male half of the population.
-
- There is already a backlash against the lobbying effects
of Merck to push for mandatory vaccination in Texas. Time will tell whether
the vaccine will indeed be mandatory for all young American women, and
whether all eligible women will be able to afford it and to receive it.
-
- It seems reasonable to educate the population regarding
HPV infection and the risk for cancer, and to guarantee vaccine safety
and to provide medical care for possible vaccine injuries before the vaccine
is injected into millions of American women.
-
- Selected references:
-
- Bodaghi S, Wood LV, Roby G, Ryder C, Steinberg SM, Zheng
ZM. Could human papillomaviruses be spread through blood? J Clin Microbiol.
2005 Nov;43(11):5428-34.
-
- Dunne EF, Nielson CM, Stone KM, Markowitz LE, Giuliano
AR. Prevalence of HPV infection among men: A systematic review of the literature.
J Infect Dis. 2006 Oct 15;194(8):1044-57. Epub 2006 Sep 12.
-
- Castellsague X, Diaz M, de Sanjose S, Munoz N, Herrero
R,Franceschi S, PeelingRW, Ashley R, Smith JS, Snijders PJ, Meijer CJ,
Bosch FX; International Agency for Research on Cancer Multicenter Cervical
Cancer Study Group. Worldwide human papillomavirus etiology of cervical
adenocarcinoma and its cofactors: implications for screening and prevention.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006 Mar 1;98(5):303-15.
-
- Lukic A, Canzio C, Patella A, Giovagnoli M, Cipriani
P, Frega A,Moscarini M. Determination of cervicovaginal microorganisms
in women with abnormal cervical cytology: the role of Ureaplasma urealyticum.
Anticancer Res. 2006 Nov-Dec;26(6C):4843-9.
-
- Maiche AG, Pyrhonen S. Risk of cervical cancer among
wives of men with carcinoma of the penis. Acta Oncol. 1990;29(5):569-71.
-
- McNicol P, Paraskevas M, Guijon F. Variability of polymerase
chain reaction-based detection of human papillomavirus DNA is associated
with the composition of vaginal microbial flora. J Med Virol. 1994 Jun;43(2):194-200.
-
- Powell J, Strauss S, Gray J, Wojnarowska F. Genital carriage
of human papilloma virus (HPV) DNA in prepubertal girls with and without
vulval disease. Pediatr Dermatol. 2003 May-Jun;20(3):191-4.
-
- Rosemberg SK, Herman G, Elfont E. Sexually transmitted
papilloma viral infection in the male. VII. Is cancer of penis sexually
transmitted? Urology. 1991 May;37(5):437-40.
-
- Syrjanen S, Puranen M. Human papillomavirus infections
in children: the potential role of maternal transmission. Crit Rev Oral
Biol Med. 2000;11(2):259-74.
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- Alan Cantwell M.D. is retired dermatologist. He is the
author of The Cancer Microbe: The Hidden Killer in Cancer, AIDS, and Other
Immune Diseases, and Four Women Against Cancer: Bacteria, Cancer and the
Origin of Life, both published by Aries Rising Press, PO Box 29532, Los
Angeles, CA 90029 (www.ariesrisingpress.com). His books are available from
Amazon.com and via Book Clearing House at 1-800-431-1579. Email Dr. Cantwell:
<mailto:alancantwell@sbcglobal.net>alancantwell@sbcglobal.net
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